You’re likely familiar with the Milgram Experiment, which found that
many obey the orders given by someone perceived to be an authority, even
when it’s believed to be at to the detriment of another, and especially
when personal responsibility was said to be absolved.

The Stanford Prison Experiment echoed those take-aways, as study
participants internalized their roles of prisoner or guard to an extent
that researcher Philip Zimbardo noted had commonalities with the
prisoner abuse that happened at Abu Ghraib.

Think about how that obedience to authority impacts us today. Someone
caged in supermax facility obviously isn’t physically free. But are
you, not behind the walls of a supermax, free? Truly free? Or is it more
accurate to say that you are freer?

In the document below, Davi – who’s behind Bitcoin Not Bombs, which through BTC donations, will help to clothe hundreds in San Fran, and who spearheaded the Cop Block natural law enforcement badge – outlines what he calls a renegade experiment that aims to discern the
impact that police-as-authority paradigm has on as demonstrated by the
willingness to intervene in a situation when the aggressor dons a badge
and costume verses a situation when the aggressor dons “regular”
clothes. Here are a few excerpts:

We are living in an increasingly militarized society, and
I would argue that this has a primarily psychological cause, not merely
a political cause. If allowed to continue this could have disastrous
consequences, as it has throughout history. . .

The militarization of society cannot be fought only with votes, or
with cameras, or even with rifles, if the underlying impulses for
compliance are not first addressed in the mind of every subject who
slavishly accepts their subjugation. . .

The researched speculated that the vicious cycle of power and
hypocrisy could be broken by attacking the legitimacy of power, rather
than the power itself. . .

Human nature is essentially adaptive. If you take an otherwise good
person and put them in a role that incentivizes evil they will adapt to
the new role. And if you deeply internalize “obedience to authority” as a
core personality trait you will become capable of the worst forms fo
murder, and tolerant of the worst forms of abuse. . .

[W]hen atrocities are committed by militarized societies the
perpetrators are usually a minority of the population, and the victims
are usually a minority of the population, but the passive witnesses are
the majority, and thereby the most capable of meaningful intervention

If, after becoming familiar with Davi’s objectives, if you have
suggestions for him on how to make for a more sound study, or if you
want to help fund the associated costs, hit him up: davi@bitcoinnotbombs.com